Rizomm
2024
Cremisan Valley, Palestine
Tilburg, Netherlands
Rizomm is a biophotographic installation where buried photosensitive films, shaped by the soil and its living organisms, trace a dialogue between landscapes, memory, and the cyclical relationship between earth and image.
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Rizomm, derived from the Greek "rhíza" [ῥῐ́ζᾰ] (root) and the Arabic "omm" [أم] (mother), is both an installation and a production space where images are conceived successively as seeds to plant and plants to gather. Lively, discontinuous, and shapeshifting, these buried film images tell the story of the soil, what grows and rests within it.Rizomm buries photosensitive films in the ground, allowing natural processes to create the images. Each installation connects various landscapes and eras by exposing films that were previously buried. The film currently presented was buried in the Cremisan Valley, Palestine, in April 2024, during the Sounds of Places residency at Wonder Cabinet / Radio alHara in Bethlehem, Palestine. It was buried for ten days. Its forms tell the memory through direct contact with the earth.Drawing from the writings of The Sustainable Darkroom and the research of Yannick Vernet at La Cellule d’Arles, Rizomm explores the soil as both origin and destination, acting as an intermediary between the past and the future. It functions as a network that plays with boundaries. The installation captures the snapshot of a given landscape at a specific moment, allowing the living to trace its own map.By inducing the porous boundary between installation and photography, Rizomm fits within the realm of biophotography and photographic objects. In each installation, a photosensitive film is buried in the earth, allowing the environment, rather than human hands, to create the image. Living organisms, by digging tunnels in the soil, allow light to reach the photosensitive surface, thereby forming the image. Each installation also exposes the previously buried film, establishing a connection between the various landscapes and the moments when the installation existed.
Rizomm explores soil as both origin and destination, acting as an intermediary between the past and future. This installation captures a snapshot of a given landscape at a specific moment, approaching image-making as a collaborative process between humans and the living environment.Blurring the lines between installation and photography, Rizomm delves into biophotography and photographic objects. In each installation, a photosensitive film is buried beneath the soil, allowing the environment, rather than human hands, to create the image. Amongst other lifeforms, earthworms play a crucial role, tunneling through the soil and enabling light to reach the photosensitive surface, thus forming the image on the photosensitive surface. Each installation also exhibits the previously buried film, establishing a connection between the different landscapes and times where the installation has existed.
Rizomm views photography as a hyperobject, as described by Timothy Morton—an entity so vast it eludes human control. In this sense, we are like yeasts activating the dough of photography and giving it new life. Inspired by the works of Hannah Fletcher at the Sustainable Darkroom and Yannick Vernet at La Cellule - ENSP, this installation sees image-making as a living, constantly evolving organism.The installation features a set of prints on fabric displaying the positives of previously buried films. At the center, a smaller transparent cube protects the newly buried film during its exposure, serving both as a magnifying lens and as a display for the project’s title and description.
